Pepeliaev Group is thanked by the Ministry of Industry and Trade

Denis Manturov, Minister of Industry and Trade, thanked Pepeliaev Group “for its support for and participation in” the first international forum АNTI-COUNTERFEITING 2012. Valentina Orlova, Head of Pepeliaev Group’s Intellectual Property and Trademarks Practice, was the forum’s scientific consultant. The event was organised by the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade, the organising committee was headed by first Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, and Denis Manturov was Deputy Chairman of the organising committee.

Dmitry Medvedev, Prime Minister of Russia, said in his opening speech: “Citizens of any country must understand that when they buy goods of doubtful origin they not only risk their health and support illegal producers, but they jeopardise the whole system of producing quality goods, in which a lot of human work has been invested”. He reiterated that Russia will have to solve the problem of combating counterfeit products in the new conditions, after having entered the WTO and the Customs Union. “We must not be afraid of the WTO, but we must not idealise it either. It is not a panacea for all woes, but it is a set of tools, and we need to put these tools to good use”, said Medvedev.

During the forum the Pepeliaev Group hosted the interdepartmental workgroup’s meeting “Improving legal regulation of means of identification. Problems with the exhaustion of rights regime.” chaired by Valentina Orlova. The workgroup’s participants discussed legal developments in the areas of exhaustion of rights and regulation of means of identification.

Valentina Orlova also co-moderated the forum’s session “Exhaustion. Is Russia prepared for parallel importing? (Protection of intellectual property rights and parallel importing issues)”. “The problem has become more relevant after the discussion began on how expedient it would be for Russia to move from the national to the international principle of regulating exhaustion of intellectual property rights,” believes Mrs Orlova. At present the matter of parallel importing (importing original products into Russia without the permission of trademark owners) remains uncertain. For one thing, the national principle for regulating exhaustion of trademark rights is in effect, meaning that the trademark owner loses the exclusive rights to the trademark after it is first put into civil circulation in Russia either by the trademark owner or with its consent. For another thing, the concept of illegal trademark use is not defined clearly enough. The Code of Administrative Offences does not recognise parallel importing as a violation of law, and court practice in the area of civil law relations remains contradictory. The problem has become even more important with the Single Economic Area coming into existence, where the regional principle of regulating exhaustion is in effect.

Valentina Orlova is confident that a separate discussion of parallel importing has helped to develop approaches to resolving a competitive situation in the sensitive commodity markets should the transfer to the international principle of trademark exhaustion regulation take place. Those taking part also discussed how the decision to legalise parallel importing could influence Russia’s economy and the behaviour of market participants’ behaviour, and how to resolve these differences in the Russian legislation and in the administrative and judicial practice.

The first international АNTI-COUNTERFEITING forum took place in Moscow between 22 and 24 October 2012 and was supported by the Russian Government for the purposes of improving the state policy in the area of protecting intellectual rights and developing the system of measures for combating production and distribution of counterfeit and falsified goods, and of forming a civilised market in Russia. The forum’s participants included representatives from the Russian State Duma, Ministry of Industry and Trade, Federal Antimonopoly service, Federal Customs Service, Ministry of Economic Development, Ministry of Education and Science, Agency for Patents and Trademarks, Skolkovo fund, RusBrand, Russian Academy of Justice, representatives of the business community and trademark owners, lawyers and specialists in the area of intellectual property.

Valentina is among Russia’s leading experts in intellectual property, with more than 30 years of experience in the field. Prior to joining Pepeliaev Group, Valentina was the head of the Legal Department in the Patents Office (Rospatent). She is also a member of Rospatent’s Scientific and Technical Council, professor, doctor of law, and academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences. Valentina focuses on advising clients on intellectual property matters, including the registration of both domestic and international trademarks. Valentina has an extensive track record of acting for Russian and foreign clients in the pre-trial settlement of intellectual property issues, preparing documents to be used for administrative appeals, and producing expert opinions for court hearings on cases involving the protection of intellectual property, including infringement of trademarks and industrial designs.